Monday, October 29, 2012

Several of our authors are touring his week. It's possible that some of our events will be affected by the storm on the east coast. I'll keep you posted, most likely on Facebook.

Monday, October 29, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Joan Walsh, author of What's the Matter with White People?: Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was.
In What's the Matter with White People?, popular Salon columnist Joan Walsh argues that the biggest divide in America today is not about party or ideology, but about two competing narratives for why everything has fallen apart since the 1970s. By using her own family’s story, she connects the dots of American economic decline through the political and social changes that began over 40 years ago and continues today. Leaving neither party spared, Walsh attempts to call onto the carpet how each is responsible for a role in the demise of unions, the stagnation of middle-class wages, the extension of the right's "Southern Strategy" throughout the country, the victory of Reagan Republicanism, the increase in income inequality, and the drop in economic mobility.

Watch an excerpt of Joan Walsh on Tavis Smiley's PBS program. There's a link to the entire interview.

Mara Dyer had woken up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. The only survivor of a strange accident that killed her friends, her entire life shifted in unimaginable new ways when her family moved her halfway across the country with the hope that distance would assist her in escaping from the hallucinations and nightmares that haunted her. But when more people around her mysteriously began losing their lives, and her new boyfriend appeared to be harboring his own dark secrets, Mara had to question what was real, and what was not.

Every city has its proud department store traditions, and for Milwaukeeans, both Schuster’s and Gimbels were the go-to stores for, well, just about everything. Ed Schuster and Company opened their first store on 12th and Walnut in 1883. Shortly thereafter, Adam Gimbel opened the family’s first big-city store in Milwaukee in 1887 (their earlier location was in Vincennes, Indiana; and later they expanded to Philadelphia, New York, and Pittsburgh). Both stores thrived in a city that craved both service and value—and each store had their own traditions and legends that bonded the store with their customers. The downtown Gimbels had Gertie the Duck, while the three Schuster’s stores created a longstanding holiday tradition with Bertie the Brownie.

I found some interesting Gimbels ads, but I think they were done for Pittsburgh. And then I found a Schuster's loft video, but the good one doesn't embed. So here's a few ads including a Gimbels Milwaukee ad from the 70s, but first you have to get through KK Federal (the new Alterra in Bay View) and one from Boston Store.

The adventure, suspense, and time travel continue in this second installment in the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling Pathfinder series, which Publishers Weekly called “an epic in the best sense.”
When Rigg and his friends crossed the Wall between the only world they knew and a world they could not imagine, he hoped he was leading them to safety. But the dangers in this new wallfold are more difficult to see. Rigg, Umbo, and Param know that they cannot trust the expendable, Vadesh—a machine shaped like a human, created to deceive—but they are no longer certain that they can even trust one another. But they will have little choice. Because although Rigg can decipher the paths of the past, he can’t yet see the horror that lies ahead: A destructive force with deadly intentions is hurtling toward Garden. If Rigg, Umbo, and Param can’t work together to alter the past, there will be no future.

Note that this video is cut off a bit. To watch it on the website, jump to here.

Join us for a pre-publication launch party for the next installment in the Women of Pinecraft series. Anna Schmidt will talk about the previous two books in the series, A Stranger’s Gift and A Sister’s Forgiveness. Enjoy a cake, a chance to win one of four Boswell gift cards, and learn about the next book, A Mother’s Promise, which can be pre-ordered at this event. Women of Pinecraft is a contemporary series that follows the lives of several women living in Pinecraft as they face challenges both personal and professional and find their way through life’s challenges to love and faith.

Just as their first book features a brother and a sister who team up using their special powers of creativity and imagination, siblings John Barrowman and Carole Barrowman got together to write a young adult novel set in the land of their own childhood, Scotland: Hollow Earth. Lots of twins have a special connection, but twelve-year-old Matt and Emily Calder can do more than finish each other's sentences. Together, they are able to bring art to life and enter paintings at will. Their extraordinary abilities are highly sought after, particularly by a secret group who want to access the terrors called Hollow Earth. All the demons, devils, and evil creatures ever imagined are trapped for eternity in the world of Hollow Earth--trapped unless special powers release them.

Watch this video of John on the UK show This Morning, promoting Hollow Earth. Alas, the contest to win your rent or mortgage for a year has closed out. I bet you knew the answer!

In 2010 filmmakers Faythe Levine, coauthor of Handmade Nation, and Sam Macon began documenting these dedicated practitioners, their time-honored methods, and their appreciation for quality and craftsmanship. Sign Painters, the first anecdotal history of the craft, features stories and photographs of more than two dozen sign painters working in cities throughout the United States. With a foreword by legendary artist (and former sign painter) Ed Ruscha, this vibrant book profiles sign painters young and old, from the new vanguard working solo to collaborative shops such as San Francisco’s New Bohemia Signs and New York’s Colossal Media’s Sky High Murals.

Watch this video called "A love letter to Syracuse" from Macon and Levine.